


Good Effing Luck, Isshin

by PoisonHemloc



Category: Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (Video Game)
Genre: Crack Fic, Gen, Kid Fic, The divine child is Mizuho btw, listen i just thought it was a funny idea
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-16
Updated: 2020-04-16
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:28:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,117
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23683921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PoisonHemloc/pseuds/PoisonHemloc
Summary: There was an... interesting box, that a soldier found, and brought to the castle.
Comments: 13
Kudos: 46





	Good Effing Luck, Isshin

**Author's Note:**

> Isshin tries to take over whatever fic he's in, so I tried to find a way to stop that. And Wolf decided to step in instead.
> 
> Since most of this is Isshin's POV the Sculptor is being referred to as Sekijo and Wolf will be referred to as Sekiro, because Isshin has one (1) joke and by god he will use it whenever applicable.

“So, what does it do?”

“We don’t know, so please don’t touch it Kuro.” Genichiro was frowning at the small, intricately carved box. 

“You said one of the soldiers found this?” Emma had also shown up to see… whatever this was. 

“This” was a small box that changed color between green and blue as you moved around it. It appeared to have scales carved onto it. It was wondrously pretty and made every alarm bell in Wolf’s head go off. He got the same feelings as he had from the serpent gods in the valley and something similar but worse to the high pitched flutes that made his hair stand on end from the nobles at Fountainhead Palace. So he wasn’t happy Kuro and Mizuho were so interested in it.

“Yes. He brought it right to the castle.” Genichiro wasn’t happy about this either, which was mostly a ‘worst person you know is tragically right’ feeling for Wolf. “Grandfather might know what this is, but until then, no one touch it.”

Right on cue, Isshin arrived. “Genichiro, is this the ‘dangerous artefact’ you wanted me to look at? This little box?”

“Yes, Grandfather, we aren’t sure where it came from. A soldier just found it in the outskirts, laying out in the open.”

“Well, let’s see what’s inside.” Isshin was confident he could deal with anything a little box could throw at him, but was still cautious opening it.

His caution was rewarded, because as soon as he started edging the lid open, there was a flash of light. He let go and went to shield his eyes- Genichiro, still in full armor from being out working with soldiers, leapt in front of Emma, Wolf dragged both Kuro and Mizuho together and forced them behind him- then laughed when he realized nothing had happened. 

“Is that the worst this box can do? Genichiro, wh-” Genichiro was not standing where he had been. Isshin looked down, assuming he had tripped when the box flashed.

Genichiro was standing there. But he was a lot shorter than Isshin remembered him. Emma was behind him, also a lot shorter than she had been.

Both of them appeared to be about five.

Isshin turned to ask Sekiro what had happened and bit his tongue to keep from swearing. He recognized Genichiro and Emma as children, and he recognized Kuro when he was a younger child, so the small girl next to him and the smaller boy wearing orange must have been Mizuho and Sekiro.

It was Isshin and five small children standing in this room. He looked back at the box that had caused this, thinking to close it, and watched it crumble to dust like a thousand years had hit the wooden box all at once.

“Genichiro? Emma? Kuro? Come here please. Mizuho, Se- I’m sorry, I don’t know what your name is,”  _ He has a normal name, right? He’s only ever gone by his shinobi name here _ “But can the two of you come over here too?” The three who had known him already had run right over, and perhaps because of that the Divine Child and the shinobi had backed away. Mizuho had grabbed Sekiro’s hand, too, and looked ready to pull him away at a moment’s notice.

“It’s okay, I promise. I’m just taking care of you temporarily, until your parents come back.” Neither of them wanted to come closer but they weren’t leaving, either; Isshin was terrible at lying especially if he hadn’t had a chance to practice the lie first. Isshin heard footsteps approaching, heard the door slide open, and heard Gyoubu’s intake of breath.

“I think I might need your help, Gyoubu. But I need you to get Sekijo first.”

“I’ll have someone get him.” And he left, closing the door again behind him.

“Mizuho? I promise, it’s okay.” She seemed a little more willing to listen since he knew her name. “Little one, I never caught what your name was.”

“‘m not supposed to tell strangers.” Of course, an opportunity to solve a minor mystery that bothered Isshin, denied. 

“Well, I need to call you something for a few days until your parents come get you. How about Sekiro?” Might as well. He was getting a very suspicious glare, but then a small nod. 

It had been only two hours with all five of them still children and Isshin was glad he had only had Genichiro the first time. Genichiro and Emma were fine; they had grown up together, knew each other, and as long as they weren’t throwing reptiles or hitting each other with sticks they tended to get along well. They and Kuro recognized each other despite Kuro normally being fourteen years younger and were happy to play with him. Mizuho was fine, even; she was nervous to be in the castle and did know vaguely who Isshin was, and was a little scared about it, but between Emma and Kuro she had been welcomed into their little group.

So Sekiro was the headache. 

He did not know of Ashina, nor did he care; the country he named as a birthplace was a week to the south, next to the ocean. There was no sense of respect for being in a foreign country and especially not for being in the castle of the country’s ruler. He also had apparently learned how to climb every potentially climbable object not under Owl’s mentorship, but before, and while the other four were playing nicely Isshin had been periodically pulling him off whatever bookshelf or pillar he had scaled to find an escape route out of the room.

Eventually Isshin had a grinning servant who was passing by fetch a few spare obi and tied Sekiro into a makeshift harness with the other end fastened around his waist. Being tethered to Isshin was enough to convince him to try and make friends instead of escape and Mizuho had already started playing with him by the time Sekijo came. 

“Isshin. What happened.” Sekijo had knelt and offered his hand to Emma, who had run over immediately. 

“Some soldiers found a box in the outskirts. It did this when I came to look at it.” 

“Hm.” Sekijo probably thought Isshin had done something but Isshin wasn’t willing to admit to that.

“It crumbled to dust after, so I couldn’t get a better look.” 

“So everyone else in the room are children now.”

“Everyone else in the room are children now.”

“So, what’s your plan, Isshin?”

“I don’t know how long this will last.” Isshin looked down at Genichiro, still playing with Kuro, then looked back. “If nothing else, I did- wait.” Isshin suddenly realized the makeshift belt hadn’t been tugging at him for a few minutes, and looking for the end showed it to have been untied; one half was still anchored to him, but the harness and Sekiro were no longer attached. Looking around the room showed both Sekiro and Mizuho gone.

“Sekijo, stay here with these three, please? Sekiro has been climbing the walls all day and it looks like he finally slipped out and took Mizuho with him.” 

The third hurrying servant pointed Isshin towards the kitchens; the two probably didn’t know where they were actually going and had ended up there.

He saw Mizuho first, talking with a busy chef between spoonfuls of a soup. He nodded when the man glanced at him and looked around. She would be fine in one place, she was a follower, not an instigator.

Sekiro was wearing a plain orange kimono the same color as the haori he had as an adult, and it made it easy to spot him on the fifth self up in a small pantry. Unfortunately he had managed to find a small jar of honey and both hands and his face were coated when he made guilty eye contact with Isshin. 

Rather than just grab him, Isshin decided to try and build some goodwill. He walked out of the pantry and found a sweet rice ball someone had made- it had probably been Kuro the day before, he liked making sweets- and offered it to the sticky kid, who had not moved from his spot. It was a solid thirty seconds of Sekiro looking between Isshin and the offered rice ball before he slowly reached out towards it, then snatched it suddenly and began eating quickly. Isshin waited til he was done to offer a hand, which was regarded with more suspicion, but eventually a small, sticky hand reached out and he lifted the boy to the ground and knelt next to him. 

“Sekiro. I’m supposed to be watching the five of you for a while. Please don’t run off like that, it worries me.” It had been a long time since Isshin had to teach a small child social graces; he was hoping he remembered the best way to talk to them. He was still getting a very suspicious look, but then a small nod.

“Good. Let’s get that honey off your hands and face then, shall we? Then we can rejoin Kuro and Emma and Genichiro.”

“Don’t like this thing.” Sekiro started rubbing at the harness with his arms rather than touch it with honey covered hands.

“If you promise not to run off without telling me again, I’ll take it off. I don’t want you to get hurt or lost here.” The proto-shinobi frowned, thinking, until he decided on a response. 

“‘Kay.” 

Isshin, a now clean Sekiro and full Mizuho following, came back to the room everyone else had been in to see three small bodies scattered around the floor asleep. Gyoubu had come back and was asleep too, but he could fall asleep anywhere and that was unsurprising. Sekijo nodded to him.

“Naptime. You two, would you like to take a nap as well? Someone brought in some more blankets.” A nod from Mizuho. Sekiro hesitated, then nodded as well. Mizuho grabbed one blanket and curled up closer to the group while little Sekiro dragged a handful of them over to a corner and fell asleep in a makeshift nest.

Sekijo waited until their breathing had settled to start talking quietly to Isshin.

“What’s your plan when they don’t snap out of this in a few days, Lord Isshin?”

“What are you talking about, Sekijo?”

“You’re thinking they’ll be children again for a little while, and then they’ll go back to being adult-mostly adults and older children. What is your plan when that doesn’t happen?”

“...Raise them again, I suppose. There isn’t anything else to do.”

* * *

The entire next morning Genichiro was never more than a step or two away from Isshin as he and Sekijo worked together to keep the children occupied. He didn’t want to play with anyone, either; he wanted to be with his grandfather.

“Isshin, take him and go see to something. Make sure the retainers are alright, I don’t know.” Sekijo kept his voice quiet, supervising Sekiro and Kuro playfighting while Mizuho and Emma played with the tops he had started carving again.

“He is never this clingy, I’m not sure-”

“You have four other children vying for your attention now. It used to be, the only other one was Emma and she spent all her time with Dogen, but he’s... not here right now. It’s normal that he’ll get jealous, so go do something with him.”

“Alright. Genichiro, do you want to come with me to talk to Gyoubu?” He got an immediate, enthusiastic nod, and leaned over to hold Genichiro’s hand as they left the other children in Sekijo’s care. 

Gyoubu was talking to a retainer as he brushed out Onikage. Isshin caught just enough of the conversation to know he disapproved of whatever the man had decided to do and also to know it was not his problem right now. The retainer walked off supposedly to fix whatever Gyoubu had chewed him out for as Isshin picked up Genichiro so he could see Gyoubu over the stall door.

“Lord Isshin. Genichiro, do you want to go for a ride?” He patted at the warhorse’s flank for a moment, but Genichiro apparently really wanted Isshin’s attention because he shook his head in an uncharacteristic no. 

“Any issues, Gyoubu?” 

“Not in the past day, no. A couple people who aren’t thrilled that I’m temporarily in charge. They’ll live.”

“Remember we have apprentices right now and not a doctor.”

“ _ I _ don’t injure people when I’m trying to get a point across, Isshin.”

“...Say goodbye, Genichiro, we have other things to do.”

They returned to the other children almost at dinner time. Annoyingly, Sekijo was better with children than Isshin and had been able to keep the other four peacefully occupied while Isshin took Genichiro on a walking tour around the castle to keep him happy for the day.

* * *

Isshin had some semblance of a routine back by four days in. Gyoubu had taken over Genichiro’s job of actually running the country, leaving Isshin to wake up early, do the Nightjar’s paperwork that was still his job, and be able to play with the children for most of the day. Sekijo helped, but he was still returning to his temple at night and showed up part way through the morning. 

And today, when Sekijo showed up, Isshin had to leave almost immediately because Sekiro had run off. Again. He never tried to run off if Sekijo was watching, or Sekijo and Isshin; but if it was just Isshin he’d try frequently. He only had one place he’d run to, though.

“Lord Isshin, we were about to send him back.” One of the chefs bowed politely and led Isshin over to one of the prep stations, where a servant had set Sekiro up on a barrel so he could reach the counter and apparently taste test whatever the man handed him. 

Isshin thought for a moment, since Sekiro was apparently enjoying the persimmon half he had been given and was not paying attention. He was running off, and every time he was running to the kitchens. Yelling probably wasn’t the best course to take.

“Sekiro?” The child jumped a little and looked up, mouth still full of fruit. Isshin leaned down to look him in the eyes. “I know you don’t like the harness I had, so I’ll make a new deal with you. Tell me when you want to go to the kitchens? And tell someone down here, so they don’t send a large bowl of food at the next meal when you’re already full. But if the chefs are alright with you being here, I will not stop you.” With how younger Sekiro acted around food Isshin wouldn’t be surprised if his family couldn’t always afford enough to keep him full, and if semi-free reign in the kitchen was what he needed to behave Isshin was happy to let the kitchen servants take some of the load off his shoulders. The man next to Sekiro was also nodding enthusiastically as Isshin watched the child frown, trying to think of a potential downside to this.

And give up, and nod. 

“Good. Are you happy here for right now, or should I come back later?” 

“‘m good.” Sekiro leapt off the barrel to both Isshin and the servant trying to catch him and giggled when Isshin lifted him up further, carrying him back to the main room. 

“One more thing, Sekiro.” He waited until the child was paying attention, not watching a handful of Nightjar on their way to the rooftops. “Tell Mizuho? She can have the same agreement, if she wishes.” Sekiro nodded and resettled himself as Isshin continued back to the room he had taken over for the five children.

* * *

“Lord Isshin?” Mizuho had finally resorted to tugging on his hakama to get his attention; she was the only child not running around madly playing tag. He knelt down and smiled slightly; three children knew him and Sekiro still could not care less about him being the leader of the country, so she was the only child nervous around him still, five days into them being children. 

“Mizuho, go ahead.” 

“...my family just lives at Asaraoi, why can’t I go back? I miss Toneri and I’m sure mother and father-”

“Your family is helping me with something important right now.” At least he’d had time to come up with a plausible lie. “I’m watching you in exchange.”

“Why not Toneri too, then?” Toneri must be a brother. Isshin knew she’d been the only child to survive the monk’s experiments, but hadn’t thought about if she’d had siblings. 

“I’m not sure.” And because he hadn’t thought she might have had a brother he didn’t have a good, practiced lie in place. She frowned, staring at him until she realized that was rude and looked at the other children. 

“He’s only two years older.” Came a quiet grumble and Isshin breathed a silent sigh of relief. 

Isshin was saved from having to answer another question by Kuro, dragging Mizuho back into their game. And then he got to referee Genichiro and Sekiro- the largest child and smallest child present, though they did not cooperate well- versus the other three, playing keep-away with a small ball. 

* * *

Sekijo was still grumbling that he’d been dragged away from the temple for the past week for this, but he grumbled constantly anyway and while Isshin wouldn’t admit it he needed the retired shinobi’s help to supervise everyone, and ignored it. Today he was ignoring it from the other side of a small, shallow pond on the calmest river within small child walking distance. 

The children were splashing each other and laughing; the water here at most came up to their waists, so Isshin wasn’t super concerned about anything happening. Worst case scenario, he or Sekijo would just reach over and pull someone out of the water. 

He did a fast headcount like he had every few minutes and… Sekiro again. He was the troublemaker of the group, which was both unexpected and irritating for someone who you usually didn’t notice as an adult until it was too late.

Sekiro was a little way further downstream, where the river came back together and deepend and- Isshin surged to his feet when Sekiro went under.

And watched him swim and surface behind Emma and Genichiro, who had teamed up against Kuro and Mizuho, and start splashing them.

“Sekiro. You know how to swim?” He had to wait and ask again, a few minutes later; Emma and Genichiro had startled at the unexpected splash and Emma had turned to splash him as Genichiro continued splashing the other two. When they were actually paying attention, he repeated the question and Sekiro nodded. 

“Can you show us?” That was Kuro, always excited to learn something new. But the other children were nodding as well. Isshin didn’t know how to swim, and knew neither Genichiro nor Emma knew how; it wasn’t a widely used or needed skill in Ashina. 

So Isshin and Sekijo got to supervise as Sekiro explained, in a small child occasionally needing to backtrack and clarify something way, how to swim, and then they got to pull out whichever child was trying and not getting the hang of it. Kuro was a natural; Mizuho got the hang of it pretty quickly. Neither Emma nor Genichiro were any good at it though, and after her fourth rescue Emma just moved out of the water to sit in a sunbeam while Genichiro kept trying and kept having to be rescued by Isshin.

* * *

“Be careful.” Isshin watched as the five children sprinted around, playing tag and mostly ignoring him. Sekijo had gone back to the temple for a few hours, so it was just him, but he was doing fine. They may have been faster than him, but he was very good at anticipating where they would be and catching any child moving too fast for his taste. 

Kuro was running, trying to tag Emma, when his feet slid out from under him and he fell. His momentum did not stop, and he slid and hit a pillar with his stomach, full force.

The other kids froze, and so did he; it had been a loud hit. Isshin walked over and pulled him up.

“Nothing hurting, Kuro?” He knew there wouldn’t be; Kuro had been about five when his parents had found out he had the Dragon’s Heritage and couldn’t bleed or be hurt by normal means. At most, this had just stung.

Isshin was watching Kuro nod and missed the other children’s reactions- Emma looked concerned, Mizuho thoughtful, and Sekiro and Genichiro both started looking around for something to test if they could take a hit like that and be fine.

Isshin turned around just in time to see Genichiro take a flying leap towards a different pillar. 

And make an undignified sound when Isshin grabbed him by the ankle before he could connect.

“Genichiro. Why did you decide to throw yourself into a pillar. You know that is going to hurt. Remember when you startled that servant and fell down the stairs?” Isshin realized right after he said that that no, Genichiro had done that the first time he was five and he probably didn’t remember- but the boy was nodding hesitantly as Isshin put him down carefully. 

“I forgot until you said that.” 

“Well, now you remember, right? Kuro won’t get hurt doing this because of his heritage, but you will.” All of the children had various levels of ‘wait that’s right Kuro is special’ remembrance on their face. Except one.

Of course Sekiro wasn’t on the ground, Isshin had looked away from him for thirty seconds. When he turned, there were a pair of brown eyes staring down from the very top of a tall bookshelf. 

“Don’t jump down, Sekiro, you will hurt yourself.” Isshin did not entertain the thought that Sekiro would listen to him for good reason; Sekiro may have gotten more cooperative over the past few days, now that he had been given free access to a food source, but he still did not seem to care about Isshin being a noble or really care for him as a caretaker. And he jumped off the bookshelf.

And made an oofing sound when Isshin grabbed him around the waist and put him on the ground as well.

“Sekiro, our agreement was you listen to me, and I do have to put a harness on you again. That was not you listening to me. And if it happens again I am going to make a new one you cannot untie and I will not take it off unless you start listening to me again, Sekiro. Do you understand?”

Sekiro actually held his glare for a minute, then sagged. 

“Yes.”

“Good. Now go back to your game, everyone, there’s still an hour until dinner.”

* * *

The children had wanted to explore today, apparently, and it was early enough Sekijo hadn’t made it to the castle yet. Isshin had already been forced to give up and tie Sekiro into a more secure harness, with the promise that it would be taken off when he behaved. The other four were not acting much better this morning, and Isshin was debating just putting all of them in harnesses when Kuro, not watching where he was going running from one room to the next in this mostly abandoned corridor, ran straight into Genichiro and both were knocked over. Isshin walked over and knelt; Genichiro had never cried a lot after the first few nights as an Ashina, and Kuro never was hurt enough to cry from pain, so at least there weren’t tears everywhere, but Genichiro had a small cut on his forehead that mirrored the scar he’d gotten sparring when he was sixteen, so Isshin corralled the children down the corridor, carrying a squirming Genichiro, to what was normally Emma’s domain.

Yui, the main apprentice, was happy to check the small injury and apply an ointment she insisted on as Isshin watched, kneeling next to Genichiro. Once she was done, she looked up and laughed.

Isshin followed her gaze and merely sighed; while he wasn’t watching, Emma had found a sheet that hadn’t been cut apart for spare bandages yet, and had proceeded to wrap Kuro’s entire head with it. 

“Emma, he’s not going to be able to see like that. No, you two don’t have to do that, we can just take it off.” Sekiro and Mizuho had each grabbed an arm, ready to lead Kuro around. 

“But Genichiro got his head checked and he’s got stuff on his cut so Kuro-”

“I promise, Kuro is fine, he doesn’t need to be bandaged like that.” Yui, still giggling, helped unwrap Kuro’s head as Emma pouted.

* * *

It would be two weeks tomorrow that Isshin had been the main caretaker over five small children. While he felt he was getting better at handling them, they were starting to question his explanation- that the Hiratas had asked him to watch Kuro at the same time he asked Mizuho’s parents and Sekiro’s mother to do something important for him and in exchange he would watch the two of them. Emma was asking where Dogen was and not impressed by him saying Dogen was helping the Hiratas. Sekiro was the most suspicious and had resumed trying to break out and had been tied into a stronger harness on an almost 24 hour basis in response. Mizuho had resumed asking why she couldn’t go home, since her village had been nearby. Kuro was questioning why his parents had left him there, having never done that in his memory. And Genichiro was clingier than he ever had been; if Isshin wasn’t careful, he’d trip. 

Sekijo and various retainers were helping as much as they could, but Sekijo had something he was doing at the temple apparently and the retainers had other jobs, especially with Genichiro being five and Isshin being busy. 

Isshin was trying to talk the children into another game, or reading, or something so they would hopefully cooperate for a few hours until he had help again and could take two or three of them to do something outside when Sekiro pulled, hard, on the leash he had tied around his waist again.

It didn’t do anything except annoy him; the children hadn’t been even vaguely in the realm of being good that morning, and had decided to spend all afternoon outdoing themselves apparently. He knelt next to the small child and started talking to him about it not being nice to do that, what if he had fallen, everything that gave him flashbacks to talking to Genichiro about not hitting Emma with sticks and to Emma about not throwing reptiles at Genichiro. Sekiro was nodding along like he knew everything Isshin was talking about.

“Sekiro. If you’re acting like you know this, why did you pull on me?”

“Mizuho asked me to.”

“Mizuho-” was gone. Kuro was gone. Emma was gone. And even Genichiro was gone. And when he turned back Sekiro was finishing wiggling out of the harness he was not supposed to be able to wiggle out of and running off.

Trying to run off. Isshin’s reflexes were still good.

“Sekiro. Do you know where they went?”

“Mizuho wanted to see her family in Asaraoi. So she convinced everyone to go with her. She said she’d get me mochi from one of the vendors if I helped.”

“I’ll make sure you still get your mochi, Sekiro.” If nothing else, the shinobi- future shinobi?- was very food motivated in general but sweets motivated in particular. “I just need you not to run off while we find everyone else. The better you are, the more sweets you get once I’ve found everyone.” He was nodding, enthusiastically this time, before Isshin finished the sentence.

Emma and Genichiro may have known their way around the castle, and they had a head start on Isshin, but he was much more familiar and had a much longer leg span. They still made it almost to the castle gate before Isshin caught up.

“Asaraoi is too far away to make it there before the sun sets today, Mizuho. And I told you already, your parents are not there.”

She was frowning back like she didn’t believe him but didn’t argue. 

“But Urasaki is right outside and we can go there today and be back soon. Sekiro says he was promised mochi for distracting me, but if everyone sticks together I can get all of you sweets, alright?” Bribing the children with desserts was not his best parenting tactic but if it worked, it worked. Genichiro and Emma seemed to take his statement as everyone had to behave or no one except Sekiro would get anything, and were militant about keeping Mizuho nearby and stopping Kuro from wandering away lest they have to watch Sekiro eat sweets they did not get.

After they returned and the five of them settled for the night, Isshin debated explaining that Asaraoi no longer existed, but knew that would lead into how most of the population had been taken or killed by the Senpou monks and then into that box and everything else and while Emma and his two relatives would probably stay nearby, Sekiro and Mizuho would not trust him and would take off. If it turned out that he was raising them again he would tell them eventually, but right now was not the time.

Halfway through the night Isshin woke up to movement in the room somewhere. It was lighter than it should have been, barely. He looked around and, roughly where Sekiro had been, was the glow. He sat up and saw it swivel towards him, then blink out suddenly. 

_ Kuro said his eyes glowed as an adult, I guess they did as a child too? _ And there had never been a reason for that offered; they just did, apparently. Isshin didn’t care as long as Sekiro didn’t try to sneak off, and once he was sure Sekiro was asleep again, he followed suit.

* * *

Everyone was cooperating today, which made Isshin suspicious. There wasn’t anything he could do about it, though; Sekijo was at the temple and said he’d be back soon and Gyoubu was dealing with an issue near the gate and Isshin still felt just him was not enough for five children but calling servants for reinforcements felt like admitting defeat. All he could do was supervise right now. Kuro and Emma were being good, Sekiro had neither tried to get in a fight with Genichiro nor started climbing things today and had been released from his harness, and Genichiro had gotten a special request from Isshin and was keeping Mizuho occupied so she wasn’t planning another escape attempt.

“Lord Isshin?” The retainer did not back down from a glare. “It’s important, Lord Isshin, and I cannot get Gyoubu currently.”

“I’m sure someone else can handle it.” Isshin checked on the children- they were playing at something with wooden toys, Emma apparently had never gotten rid of the ones Sekijo had carved the first time she was this young- and stepped outside the room to see what was going on.

It couldn’t have been more than five minutes that he was talking the man through the supply issue before he reentered the room, closing the door behind him, but he felt two or three of them run over to hug his legs. He stopped smiling when he looked down and saw they were all covered in paint and ink. 

A quick survey of the room showed Sekiro and Mizuho also covered with splotches of the thankfully cheap paint and ink he hadn’t realized was kept in this part of the castle. The center of the room had also been redecorated. He knelt down and rather than say something held up a wet strand of Emma’s once-brown hair. One of them had poured ink over her head so she had black hair- splotchy black hair, only the top layers were coated- like the other four. Somehow it had stayed out of her eyes, but the back of her neck and a lot of her kimono were dyed black as well. 

“Now she matches.” This came from Kuro, whose ink-covered hands named him the amatuer hair dyer. “It just took a while to find the right color.”

“Did you pour it on the ground to check?” That was what appeared to have happened.

“I was going to stick my finger in to see but Sekiro said I’d get the paints all mucky.” Sekiro hadn’t been paying attention, but glanced over at his name and then pouted when Isshin reached over and removed the small jar of green paint he was preparing to pour over Mizuho’s head. It had already been used; Genichiro had green hands and a green handprint over one eye and had obviously done it himself. 

“Isshin, what happened.” He turned from surveying the wreckage to see Sekijo in a now open doorway. Emma ran over to hug him and inadvertently paint his legs the handful of colors that coated her kimono. 

“Kuro I changed my mind I want red hair like Orangutan!” 

“No.” Isshin grabbed the red paint container from the ever eager Kuro and then turned towards Orangutan. “I was called out for an issue for five minutes and found out this room was where the old paints were stored, Sekijo. Well, they found out.”

“I don’t think it’s been touched for twenty years, then. I remember finding some in here the first time Emma was five. Well. Emma, Mizuho, W-Sekiro, looks like we have another trip to the river today. I’ll grab soap, you bring towels, there’s no way the bathhouse will let them in right now,” was added in an undertone to Isshin, who nodded as he gestured Genichiro and Kuro over. 

“Don’t worry, you two, we’re going as well, just you’re coming with me rather than Sekijo.” Both of them perked up and happily followed him through the castle as he let one of the retainers know what had happened and had a servant grab towels. His annoyance at the ruining of a pair of pants was tempered by almost every person they passed either muffling giggles or outright awwing at Genichiro and Kuro covered in paint, especially because both were grinning and Genichiro was waving to people he recognized. Genichiro at least was going to be horrified this happened when they went back to normal; he seemed to maintain that he needed a certain level of dignity to be in charge and a green paint handprint over one eye and random splatters of paint everywhere else did not confer that dignity in the slightest. Isshin realized he was avoiding thinking about what would happen if it didn’t wear off, then ignored the revelation. If it didn’t, it didn’t and he was taking this one day at a time as it was.

* * *

It took several servants to bring food for the little group; at least they generally all cooperated during mealtimes. Sekiro and Mizuho both had smaller bowls after spending a few hours “helping” the kitchen staff before one of them brought the two back. 

_ Generally _ they all cooperated at mealtimes. Genichiro was staring at Sekiro and Mizuho as they ate; Isshin braced himself to break up an argument- Genichiro and Sekiro hated each other as adults and only cooperated because of Kuro; as children they just weren’t each other’s favorite playmates but still got into more fights than the others- and then relaxed when Genichiro started showing the two of them how to hold chopsticks properly. 

Isshin had been more concerned with them eating rather than how they were eating and hadn’t seen that both Sekiro and Mizuho had some trouble holding the utensils right; he had noticed that neither of the two had fantastic table manners but Isshin was not the person to judge. He’d had one of the retainers teach Genichiro, rather than let him take on Isshin’s bad habits, and now Genichiro wanted to pass on the knowledge. 

Kuro leaned in to help, showing Sekiro how to hold the chopsticks near the back rather than near the tips like he had as Genichiro did the same for Mizuho. Emma, with an uncharacteristic look of mischief, started trying to give them bad information but stopped when she caught Isshin’s eye and stayed quiet for the meal instead.

* * *

Two and a half weeks into caring for five small children, Isshin bit back a sigh, making sure everyone was settled for the night. He did not want to admit he was starting to think he was too old for this; at 66 he should be occasionally caring for grandchildren, though Genichiro had never seemed to care about that kind of thing. Five small children were wearing him out faster than he cared to admit. Fighting never left him this tired, because he could tell what someone was about to do; give one goal to the kids and you would get five wildly different methods of going about it.

He blew out the candle in this room and went to sleep himself.

He woke up suddenly in the middle of the night. No one was shaking him awake for anything, but something was different. He listened for a minute and then realized that he could hear the deeper breathing of several adults.

And then he heard them wake up. Isshin grinned and sat up, lighting a candle, to see an adult Genichiro, again in full armor like he had been, sitting up, confused; Emma was looking around, as were the two children, who once again were eleven and twelve. Sekiro had already gotten to his feet when Isshin spoke.

“No. Back to bed, all of you. In the morning. You too, Sekiro, go back to sleep right now.” Realizing answers were not forthcoming, Kuro and Mizuho laid back down, followed by Emma. Sekiro must have caught something in Isshin’s tone, because he laid back down after a moment. Genichiro just took off his helmet, then raised his hands in defeat and laid down when Isshin pointed at the blankets he had been sleeping under.

Isshin waited until their breathing started to settle again before falling back asleep as a much happier person.

“Okay, Grandfather, what happened. There was a flash of light and then we were all in that room, were we passed out all day?” Isshin smiled. Two and half weeks of five children who did not listen and now he got his reward, to kick them out and drink.

“It’s been a little over two weeks. None of you were passed out. You’ve been children and younger children.” All three of the adults were frowning. “I’ve been able to keep an eye on all of you, with Sekijo’s help, but there’s only so much we can do. Now out, all of you. I’ve been dealing with you for two weeks and I don’t want to see anyone younger than Kuro for the next month.”

As they started to leave, Isshin remembered one last thing. “Sekiro!” The shinobi turned and caught a half full, slightly sticky jar of honey. “That’s yours, now that I can trust you won’t eat the rest of it in one sitting.” And he closed the door with the bewildered shinobi glancing between him and the jar.

Genichiro’s first meeting again with the retainers was sidetracked for half an hour as Gyoubu filled him in on everything he’d done for the past two and a half weeks. He spent most of it with his hands covering his face, making little horrified sounds, but he managed to pull himself back together for the actual meeting. Until, at the end Shume wandered in, grinning.

“Genichiro, no facepaint today?” Gyoubu caught his lord’s look.

“Yes, we do need you working today, Genichiro, there are important things I cannot decide that have had to wait.”

“If someone finds another cursed box I’m having them bring it straight to Grandfather and then opening it.”

“Lady Emma, are you sure you don’t need a refresher course?” Yui was the speaking apprentice, but the other two were behind her trying to hide grins.

“I’ve been able to bandage wounds since I was six. No, I don’t.” 

“I saw your last patient-”

“I was five! I am not five right now! I taught  _ all three of you _ how to do this, I am going to kick you all out of my operatory for the rest of the week unless you stop.”

Wolf poked his head into the kitchens; Kuro already wanted to be making things, so he was checking if the chef would be alright with his lord using a corner of the kitchen. One of the servants he had seen occasionally must have been watching, because he was suddenly pulled into the room with a cry of “There’s my little taste tester! Even if you’re all grown up you’re welcome in the kitchens!” The man turned and frowned a little when he caught Wolf’s panicked expression. “Oh, you must not remember, that’s a pity. Well, you’ve been down here a lot recently and we enjoyed having someone give an honest opinion on what we’re making.” Wolf held very still, processing what just happened, then nodded tentatively.

“...thank you, but I came down just now because Lord Kuro-”

“He and Lady Mizuho are always welcome down here as well! Someone should be making sweets and it might as well be them.”

Kuro and Mizuho visited Isshin two days later, as Wolf was out. He hadn’t given a specific goal.

“So he’s hiding because he’s embarrassed too.” Kuro explained. Genichiro had to be out and about but was spending most of his time in the outskirts and surrounding villages, where most people didn’t know what had happened and weren’t asking him about the new facepaint regulations. Emma had exiled her apprentices from her operatory for the next few days and was apparently sulking after Sekijo asked if she still wanted red hair. And Wolf had apparently decided that between the kitchens and the fact that the Nightjar had seen him as a child and recognized him, he was just going to be spending a lot of time avoiding people.

“It’ll do them good.” Isshin laughed. “Maybe they’ll lighten up a bit, finally. I’ve only been trying to get Genichiro to calm down for a decade, and Sekiro needed this too.”

"It's probably not good that they're avoiding people-"  


"They can't avoid everyone forever, they'll come back and be fine within a week."  


**Author's Note:**

> Hakama are pants, btw, I did use that interchangeably.


End file.
